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Coming off a disappointing season, UCLA basketball coach Steve Alford could be on the hot season if he can’t lead a less-experienced roster to a deeper run in the NCAA Tournament this season. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey)

Moses Brown barely has to jump to slam down a two-handed dunk in practice. The towering 7-foot-1 freshman’s lanky arms look almost like elastic as he effortlessly extends them toward the rim.

But Steve Alford was not completely pleased.

There was supposed to be a ball screen at the elbow. It’s coded in the play call.

The Bruins run it again.

As No. 21 UCLA prepares to open its season Tuesday at home against Purdue Fort Wayne, this is likely the tallest team Alford has had in his six years in Westwood. Brown, who is still growing, is the tallest player in UCLA history since 7-7 Mike Lanier played from 1991-93. However, this is also one of the coach’s most inexperienced teams. There are no seniors and eight players have yet to appear in an official college game.

“That’s what we’ve got to really (pay attention to), as we look at this thing, as far as us being patient as coaches,” Alford said.

But coming off a disappointing season that started with a shoplifting scandal in China and ended with an NCAA Tournament play-in game loss to St. Bonaventure, patience for Alford might be running low. ESPN and Sports Illustrated named Alford to their coaching hot seat lists to begin the season.

Alford has led the Bruins to four NCAA Tournament appearances in five years, but the coach has yet to win a regular-season Pac-12 title or get past the Sweet 16 in the NCAAs, where the Bruins have gone three times under his watch.

Much of UCLA’s relatively underwhelming results have come from inconsistent performances on defense. The Bruins were ranked below the top 100 teams in adjusted defensive efficiency by Ken Pomeroy in two of the past three years.

To alleviate the pressure, Alford replaced former assistant coach David Grace, known for his recruiting prowess that helped the Bruins secure three straight top-five recruiting classes, with Murry Bartow, the son of former UCLA head coach Gene Bartow who has 18 seasons of head coaching experience from East Tennessee State and UAB.

Alford has delegated defensive responsibilities to Bartow, a former graduate assistant at Indiana when Alford was playing for the Hoosiers, while the head coach hopes to focus more specifically on offense.

With length on his roster, Alford expects the defense can improve in 3-point percentage defense, forcing turnovers and rebounding. Last season, UCLA ranked fourth in the Pac-12 in 3-point percentage defense (34.6 percent), sixth in rebounding margin (plus-2.6) and 11th in turnovers forced (351), ahead of only Colorado.

“I’m actually really thankful that he actually came,” sophomore guard Kris Wilkes said of Bartow. “Just for him to come here and be a strictly defensive guy. Not just helping me individually, but helping the whole team. I think that’s something that we lacked a little bit last year.”

Wilkes, a Pac-12 All-Freshman team selection last season, is UCLA’s top returning scorer at 13.7 points per game. With the loss of star junior Aaron Holiday, Alford said the Bruins need Wilkes to be a “big-time scorer.”

“I think he’s one of the best guards in the country,” Alford said. “So that’s what we expect – to go out and do those things.”

The Bruins had an unceremonious exit from the NCAA Tournament last season, losing to St. Bonaventure without even getting into the main bracket. Wilkes said the upset makes the returning players hungrier for a long run this year. It humbled them to lose to an Atlantic-10 Conference team.

“You think of a small school like that or any other small school, we could easily beat them just off talent or because it’s a better school or different things like that,” the 6-foot-8 guard said. “But it’s different. You’re all the same once you get to that level.”

To get back there, Wilkes and fellow sophomore guard Jaylen Hands, another team captain, will have to lead a team with six freshmen and two redshirt freshmen who have yet to play an official game.

The Bruins already lost two key pieces of their freshman class as forward Shareef O’Neal (heart) and guard Tyger Campbell (knee) are out for the year. Redshirt junior forward Alex Olesinski (foot) isn’t expected to return sooner than the nonconference finale against Liberty on Dec. 29, and redshirt freshman Cody Riley took an inadvertent elbow to the jaw in practice from Brown and will be sidelined at least three weeks.

On Monday, one day before the season opener, Alford pulled his players into a pre-practice huddle. It was their 30th practice going against their own teammates. They were itching to face another opponent and tired of the preseason grind.

But laziness was not going to be tolerated in practice, Alford said.

“Find a way to improve today,” he told them.

“That’s kind of the mission of this team,” Alford told reporters. “Can we get better each and every day and not take steps back?”

The skinny: Despite losing the Pac-12’s leading scorer – Aaron Holiday – and 7-foot big man Thomas Welsh, the Bruins reload with a talented freshman class led by five-star center Moses Brown. With a deep, tall and athletic roster, UCLA is expected to be among the best teams in the conference but doesn’t have any seniors to count on for leadership.

Thuc Nhi Nguyen has covered UCLA for the Southern California News Group since 2016. A proud Seattle native, she majored in journalism and mathematics at the University of Washington. She likes graphs, animated GIFs and superheroes.